Maynooth University researchers are set to receive over €5 million in funding from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under the Frontiers for the Future Programme to tackle a range of topics such as renewable energy, climate change, food security, astronomy, immunology and cognitive science.
The Frontiers for the Future Awards strand has allocated funding of over €1 million to Prof John Ringwood, Department of Electronic Engineering, while a further seven MU projects will receive approximately €4 million across a range of disciplines.
Prof John Ringwood’s research focuses on mitigating the cost of wave energy relative to other renewable, and non-renewable, energy. The research proposes a combination of technological improvements to improve the economic performance of wave energy systems and produce the step change needed to boost the commercial development of wave power.
Research by Dr John Devaney will focus on the effect of tree diversity in planted forests in a changing climate. In the first experiment of its kind, this research will compare how tree monocultures and mixtures grow under simulated climates of the future.
The SFI Frontiers for the Future programme supports innovative and novel approaches to research, with funding available for both high-risk, high-reward research and larger scale research programmes with the potential to deliver economic and societal impact.
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, TD, said: “These awards, supported under the SFI Frontiers for the Future programme, will enable research ideas to contribute new knowledge, solving problems faced by our society, while also providing a continuum of support from early career to established researchers, thus growing and retaining top talent in Ireland.
"The SFI Frontiers for the Future programme takes important steps to address gender imbalance and to provide support and opportunity for emerging investigators who are returning to their research after a period of leave.”
The Maynooth University ‘Awards’ recipients are:
In Ireland and internationally, increasing the diversity of tree species in planted forests has been proposed as a nature-based solution to climate change and biodiversity loss. However, we know very little about how increasing tree diversity impacts how forests will function in climates of the future. In the first experiment of its kind, Future Forests will compare how tree monocultures and mixtures grow under simulated climates of the future
The Maynooth University ‘Projects’ recipients are:
Dr Colm Bracken, Department of Experimental Physics, received €613,466 for his research on ‘Development of Cryogenic Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors toward Next-Generation Science Instruments for Astronomy and Beyond’
Instruments for Astronomy and Beyond Superconducting Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) are extremely attractive for modern astronomy. We propose to establish Maynooth University and Dublin's Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) as a European hub for MKID development. Optimised MKIDs, combined with extremely large telescopes should enable detection of habitable-zone planets around nearby stars.
Prejudicial attitudes, such as those relating to age, race, or gender, are widespread in society. Research suggests that the way words are used in language may reflect people’s attitudes. In this project, we use computer models of language to see how well they capture the attitudes people have. This project will improve our understanding of where people’s attitudes come from, showing how computer models can be useful for exploring the effect of information on people's biases.
Energy from renewable sources in Ireland has expanded by 8.9% in 2020. Nevertheless, Ireland has failed to meet the EU's 2020 renewable energy overall target. The total share of renewable energy was 13.5% against the target of 16%. A potential path to achieve this target is to explore hybrid production of energy. In this project, a revolutionary new design of stable and smaller wind/wave platforms is investigated to reduce cost and variability of electrical energy produced.
In Ireland and internationally, increasing the diversity of tree species in planted forests has been proposed as a nature-based solution to climate change and biodiversity loss. However, we know very little about how increasing tree diversity impacts how forests will function in climates of the future. In the first experiment of its kind, Future Forests will compare how tree monocultures and mixtures grow under simulated climates of the future
This project will assess how climate changes altered the amount of carbon accumulation by Irish blanket bogs during recent millennia. These findings will be combined with model evidence to estimate whether carbon accumulation by blanket bogs in Ireland is likely to increase or decrease in future.
Sex-differences influence disease incidence and severity. We found a second key difference in immune cells between the sexes and we plan to examine what these differences mean in terms of viral responses including COVID-19. We also plan to block this protein to discover whether a mouse model of Lupus has reduced disease.
Spoilage of food sources, mainly of common cereal crops by fungi, leads to the loss of more than 15% of global annual harvest. Thus, we wish to further explore the complex genetic basis of mycotoxin production in fungi. New knowledge of how mycotoxin production in fungi is controlled will help increase production of uncontaminated agricultural crops and contribute to safer food production.